DESIGNS OF THE ANCIENT
CELTS
For the history & development
of the iconography, zoomorphic
patterns and decorative art motifs
employed by the ancient Celts,
in metalwork, ceramics and other
artworks please see: Celtic Designs.

The term "Hallstatt" refers to
an important central European culture of the early Iron
Age of the 1st millennium BCE - centred on Austria and the Upper Danube
area - which is strongly associated with the arrival of Celtic tribes
from the steppes of southern Russia. It is regarded as the first clearly
defined Celtic culture, and it remained
the principal early civilization of the region from around 800 BCE until
superceded by the La Tene culture in the fifth century BCE.

Where Was Hallstatt
Culture Practised?

The culture was centred around Austria,
but Hallstatt styles spread out into two zones: an eastern zone encompassing
Slovakia, western Hungary, western Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria
and the Czech Republic; and a western zone which included southern Germany,
Switzerland, northern Italy, and eastern France. Thus by the 6th century
BCE, it extended roughly 1,000 kilometres west to east, from the Champagne-Ardenne
region of France, across the Upper Rhine area of southern Germany and
Switzerland, into the upper reaches of the Danube in Austria, as far as
the Vienna Basin and the Danubian Lowland in the east. North to south
it ran from the Main river, Bohemia and the Little Carpathian Mountains,
to the Swiss plateau, the Salzkammergut and Lower Styria.

Where Were
the Main Hallstatt Archeological Discoveries Made?

The actual name of the culture derives
from the excavation undertaken near the village of Halstaat in Austria,
situated in the salt-mining region of Salzkammergat. Here, in the 1870s,
a team of archeologists from the Academy of Sciences in Vienna found more
than 2,000 graves - containing both cremated and interred remains, along
with caches of weaponry, armour, jewellery,
pottery and other artifacts, many decorated in an early Celtic "symmetrical"
style, employing design motifs of the ancient Danubian tradition mixed
with Greek and Etruscan
artistic influences. In 1997, the location of the find was designated
a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
World Heritage Site.

Other Hallstatt archeological finds were
made at Burgstallkogel in the central Sulm valley (near Leibnitz, Austria),
which appears to have been a major centre during the Hallstatt C period.
Chariot burials of the Hallstatt period were unearthed at Býcí
Skála, Vix and Hochdorf, while other discoveries were made at Heuneburg
on the upper Danube, Mont Lassois near Châtillon-sur-Seine in eastern
France (including the opulent Vix burial site), and the Slovakian hill
fort at Molpír. The most significant hoards of Hallstatt bronze
artifacts were found in Romania.

Why Was Hallstatt
Centred in Austria?

The geographical locus of the culture was
determined by economics. From its 400-metre deep mine shafts, Salzkammergat
exported salt all over Europe, and this lucrative trade - together with
control of trade routes along the Danube - financed and facilitated the
development of an advanced iron-making industry in the region, whose iron
ploughs, tools and weapons gave Hallstatt people a marked technological
edge over other tribes. Thus in a nutshell, Hallstatt was based on salt
and iron. One should note that the use of the iron plough was instrumental
in greatly extending areas of cultivation, leading to a significant increase
in agricultural productivity and prosperity. This in turn led to a rise
in the demand for land, which resulted in an extension of the culture
into new areas.

What Peoples Were
Involved With Hallstatt Culture?

The main practitioners of Hallstatt were
Celts. Although we lack precise information about their origins, they
are believed to have migrated from the steppelands of southern Russia
and the Caucasus, an area previously home to the Bronze era Maikop culture,
noted for its skills in metallurgy and general crafts.
Because of this, Hallstatt is seen as the first homogenous Celtic civilization.

What Are
the Main Characteristics of Hallstatt Art and Civilization?

Hallstatt is noted for its Celtic
metalwork, particularly its finely made iron weaponry and tools, as
well its bronze-based artifacts, but relatively few silver or gold items.
Archeological finds indicate a way of life that far exceeded a simple
farming culture, and analysis of burial remains reveals a class structure
topped by a wealthy aristocracy of chieftains and other VIPs.

The era is commonly divided into four phases:
two (A and B) relating to the pre-Hallstatt era, and two (C and D) relating
to Hallstatt proper.

Phase A (c.1200-1000 BCE)

This pre-Hallstatt period was preceded
by several overlapping traditions including the Bronze
Age Bell-Beaker culture (c.28001900 BCE), the Unetice culture
(c.2300-1600 BCE), and the central European Tumulus culture (c.1600-1200
BCE). During this period, which confusingly is also known as the Urnfield
culture (c.1300-800 BCE), iron was rare, and deceased people were cremated
and their remains interred in urns under low mounds or in cemeteries of
flat graves.

Phase B (c.1000-800 BCE)

This pre-Hallstatt period was characterized
by a return to tumulus or barrow burials, although the practice of cremation
remained. Early iron tools appeared.

Phase C (c.800-650 BCE)

Hallstatt proper begins. Although it developed
from the preceding Urnfield civilization,
it witnessed three key changes. First was the introduction of more advanced
iron manufacturing technology: characteristic weapons included long, heavy
iron and bronze swords with scrolled chapes, and the famous winged Hallstatt
axe, while iron ploughs also appeared. Second, inhumation replaced cremation
as the main method of burial. Third, society became sufficiently prosperous
to support a clear hierarchy, whose upper ranks were interred in richly
furnished graves.

Phase D (c.650-475 BCE)

This period saw a further growth in affluence,
resulting in larger collections of weaponry, tools and day-to-day artifacts
being interred to help the deceased maintain a proper style in the afterlife.
Metalwork, weapons and horse-trappings became more ornate. Typical metal
objects produced included: the dagger sword with a horseshoe-style or
antennae hilt; together with a range of jewellery such as brooches, clasps
and ring ornaments. Early archaic Greek pottery appears in the western
Hallstatt zone, along with numerous objects evidencing widespread trade
with every corner of the Mediterranean, and as far east as China.

Settlements were usually fortified and
located on hilltops, and typically included their own blacksmith forges,
along with metal workshops of bronze-smiths, silver-smiths, and goldsmiths.
Excavations at these ancient sites from late Phase C onwards have revealed
a number of large and opulent graves containing chariots (made from iron
or lead), together with hoards of elaborate brooches, rings and bracelets
made from bronze and gold, as well as a quantity of costly imported artifacts
such as ceramic pottery.

What Language
is Associated with the Hallstatt Period?

Historians believe that early Hallstatt
(Phases A and B) is linked with Proto-Celtic, the basic root tongue of
all known Celtic languages, while Phase D is usually associated with the
gradual diversification of the language into different types, as Celtic
traders and tribes began spreading slowly westwards into southern Gaul
and eastwards towards Asia Minor. In due course, there emerged three linguistic
traditions: Celtiberian, Goidelic and Brythonic languages.

What Type of Arts,
Crafts and Designwork are Associated with Hallstatt?

Celts brought several artistic traditions
with them from Russia, notably in metalwork. These, together with indigenous
central European styles, and imported designs from Greece and Italy, harmonized
to form the Hallstatt style. Being a practical people, Celtic
art was never going to develop along the lines of Greek
sculpture or Greek pottery,
although it borrowed quite heavily from the Hellenic idiom. Instead, it
centred on the ornamentation of utilitarian items (weapons, chariots,
armour, personal accessories), together with the creation of high quality
jewellery (brooches, rings), often employing fine techniques, contrasting
colourwork and extravagant patterns. The latter included such standard
Celtic motifs as spirals, animal designs (zoomorphs), knotwork and fretwork,
with images frequently arranged in pairs to satisfy their appreciation
for rigid symmetry. Hallstatt expertise in metalwork design would reach
new heights both during the La Tene
culture and much later in the early Christian era, exemplified by
precious objects and illuminated
gospel manuscripts made by Celtic craftsmen in Ireland and Britain.
The latter was one of the great highpoints in the history
of Irish art.

Summary

Although we still have much to learn about
Hallstatt culture, not least more details of its ordinary citizens and
their everyday routines, it appears to have been sufficiently successful
to provide a stable and relatively cohesive social system, characterized
by significant commercial and agricultural prosperity. It would also have
been recognized and valued by contemporary Etruscan, Hellenic and other
emerging civilizations, as both a trading partner and regional power,
especially for its control of the waterway trade routes along the Danube,
Rhine and Rhone rivers. Indeed, the emergence of powerful Celtic Hallstatt
chiefdoms along these routes and their influence with Mediterranean commerce
would be an important factor in the development of the coming La Tene
culture, which superceded Hallstatt around 450 BCE.

One might say that before the archeological
finds at Hallstatt, central and western Iron Age, Europe was a mere shadow
compared to the great civilizations of the Mediterranean basin. Since
then, however, it is clear that Celtic civilization was a significant
force in the European scheme of things, and - as it happened - would soon
demonstrate its full potential in the coming epoch of La Tene, with migrations
to every corner of the Continent and masterpieces like the Broighter
Collar, the Petrie Crown
and the Gundestrup Cauldron.